Venetian blinds



Jan. 10, 1956 J. c. CLARK 2,730,171

VENETAIN BLINDS Filed Dec. 23, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet l NV T R i \9 JaJE I 62 2 Zara's.

ATTORNEY.

Jan. 10, 1956 J. c. CLARK VENETAIN BLINDS 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Dec. 23, 1952 INVENTOR Jasepi C. Clarit- ATTORNEY.

United States Patent VENETIAN BLINDS Joseph C. Clark, Merchantville, N. J.

- Application December 23, 1952, Serial No. 327,594

3 Claims. (Cl. 160-467) This invention relates to Venetian blinds. While the advantages of Venetian blinds as adjustable visual screens or shades for the inner sides or faces of windows have long been manifest, as presently constituted in commercial forms they have had inherent defects militating against the satisfaction of the users. Such slat organizations conventionally collect on a bottom rail, being bunched thereon at the top of the window in full retraction. As they are progressively extended gravitationally, the bottom rail is lowered and the slats assume their relative spaced relation to each other from the top. If the bottom rail is lowered to the mid-position of the window the remainder of the bunched slats continue to rest on the lower rail. With complete extension the lower rail moves to the bottom of the window and at about or slightly below this point all of the slats are in their respective spaced arrangement. However, as the spacing of the slats starts at the top, it is virtually impossible to clean the upper parts of the window through the spaced slats or behind the bunched slats in full retraction. Moreover, it is impossible to achieve free flow ventilation by lowering the upper sash from the top, while retaining a desired visual shading of the remainder of the window, as conventional Venetian blinds necessarily interpose slats of the blind over the entire window. While there have been some previous efforts to overcome these disadvantages, each such effort seems to have been possessed of some inherent disadvantage which has precluded commercial utilization thereof.

It is among the objects of this invention to improve Venetian blinds; to provide a Venetian blind with means for collecting the bunched blinds at any selected point or area of the window, as, for instance, at the center thereof, affording access to both the upper and the lower sash thereof in an economical organization; to provide a simple Venetian blind organization of supports and tilting mechanism whereby the blinds may have full length opening for the full length of the window, may be tilted readily and easily, and may be lowered from the control mechanism so that the upper blind or slat is at any predetermined point on the window, say, at the center thereof or at any point from the center, say, to the upper edge thereof, for ventilation by or for cleaning the upper area of the associated window, and which may be pulled up with the bottom rail toward the top blind or slat, wherever that may be variably but predeterminedly located, and which control organization is housed and concealed to resemble an ordinary Venetian blind not possessed of these advantages, so as to comport visually with conventional blind installations;

In the accompanying drawings forming part of this description:

Fig. 1 represents a fragmentary top plan of the supporting and controlling assembly for the blind according to this invention, with the conventional cord and pulley organization for raising and lowering the bottom rail, omitted for clarity.

Fig. 2 represents a fragmentary side elevation of the same, with the normally concealing front panel removed.

Fig. 3 represents a fragmentary section on line 3-3 of Fig. 1, showing the tilting frame in a horizontal attitude with the supporting tapes of substantially the same length from the supporting assembly so that the slats or blinds are suspended in generally horizontal substantial parallelism.

Pig. 4 represents a similar section with the tilting frame in a tilted disposition effecting a tilted, non-horizontal, parallel spaced relation, for clarity less than the maximum tilt available from the organization.

Fig. 5 represents a fragmentary section through the supporting organization and the tilting frame thereof taken on line 5-5 of Fig. l and showing the mechanism for rotating one tape-supporting shaft.

Fig. 6 represents a perspective of the tilting supporting mechanism, with one journalling support omitted for clarity, showing at one end the mechanism for tilting the frame, and the gearing between the shafts, and at the other end the means for rotating one of the shafts for controlling the location of the upper slat of the plurality (not shown).

Fig. 7 represents a vertical section through the organization of Fig. 2, on line 7-7 thereof, with the slats bunched under the housing support on the bottom rail at its upper limit of motion.

Fig. 8 represents a similar section, with the bunched slats lowered from the support resting on the bottom rail at a lower point on the path of travel of the latter, showing the vertical area of tape extensions free from slats.

Fig. 9 represents a fragmentary horizontal section taken of line 99 of Fig. 2.

The basic Venetian blind organization of the instant invention, in an illustrative assemblage of parts, com prises pairs of slat-supporting and controlling tapes. lllustratively, these comprise a front tape 10 and a rear tape 11 toward one side of the blind, and a front tape 12 and a rear tape 13 toward the other side of the blind. In the instant invention these respective tapes are all of a given additional length longer than the conventional tapes of Venetian blinds for the same size windows, as will be described. The respective pairs of tapes 19-41 and 1213 are provided with the conventional slat-supporting cross tapes (omitted from the disclosure for clarity, but conventional in Venetian blind organizations), upon which the respective slats of the blind are supported and by which, by relative tape movements, they are tilted. These slats, for illustrative purposes, comprise an upper or top slat 14, and a plurality of lower slats 15, and the assembly is completed at the bottom by a lower or bottom rail 16. Normally there will be enough of the slats 15 provided as to permit the blind to extend vertically in extended spaced slat relation for the full len th of the Window with which it is to be associated, as in present conventional blinds. Moreover, it will have as many pairs of supporting straps or ribbons as the width of the Window requires, even to three or four pair thereof.

A supporting and enclosing housing 17 is provided, in which, as will be explained, the upper ends of the respective tapes are anchored. As it forms no essential part of the present invention, the strings and rollers by which the lower rail 16 is raised relative to the housing so as to bunch the slats together as the rail is raised, are only partially included in the disclosure. It will be understood that the lowering of the blind for the convential setting thereof will be by lowering the bottom rail '16 to the desired point, by means of cords 9 passing over pulleys 19 and through any conventional quick release locking device (not shown) conventional with Venetian blinds.

Within the support housing 17, concealed by the front panel 18 thereof, on suitable journals, is mounted a rocking anchoring tape storage parallelogram frame assembly. This comprises a first bracket plate 20, having a supporting shaft 21 centrally thereof projecting from the outer face of the plate, journalled in a standard 22. Shaft 21 extends horizontally longitudinally of the housing 17, and mounts a worm wheel or sector 23, in constant mesh with a worm gear 24, mounted on a shaft 25, generally horizontally disposed but in a direction transverse of the housing 17 and also journalled on standard 22. Shaft 25 mounts a pulley 26 about the periphery of which an angle-controlling cord 27 is wound, having its free ends exposed for manual pulls, by which the sector worm wheel 23 is rotated, to tilt the bracket plate 20, as well as the rigid parallelogram, of which it is a part.

At the opposite end of the housing 17, journalled on a suitable support, as indicated in Figures 1 and 2 at 31, and to simplify the disclosure, omitted in other figures, a hollow supporting shaft 32 is journalled, which is integral with a second bracket plate 33 of the frame. Bracket plates 20 and 33 each journal and support a rear tape shaft 34 and a front tape shaft 35, extending in parallelism between the respective bracket plates, and forming therewith a rigid frame, having a median longitudinal axis concentric with shaft 21 and hollow shaft 32, parallel to but spaced, preferably evenly, from tape shafts 34 and 35. A solid shaft 23 is journalled in hollow supporting shaft 32, and on its outer end mounts a flanged reel 29, and on the inner face of bracket plate 33 it rigidly mounts a gear 36, rotatable, of course, with rotations of solid shaft 28. The reel 29 is for the wound reception of a single control cord 37, having a free exposed end for manipulation by the user, and passing through a locking device 38, controlled between lock and release by the manually controlled angle of the cord 37 as it passes through the lock, as is conventional of cord locks and releases in this type of organization. One of the tape shafts, illustratively front tape shaft 35, rigidly mounts a gear 40, in constant mesh with the gear 36 on solid shaft 28. In order to cause synchronous opposite rotations of the respective tape shafts, tape shaft 35, on the inner surface of the plate 20, mounts a gear 41, in constant mesh with a gear 42, rigid on tape shaft 34. Of course, any desired alternative gearing may be used to cause synchronous tape shaft movements either in opposite or the same directions.

The lower wall or bottom limit 45 of the supporting housing 17 has longitudinal slit apertures 46, or other more or less wide tape openings through which the tapes 11 and 12-13 are threaded, for anchored attachment to the respective shafts 34 and 35, and the excess thereof previously mentioned is wound upon the shafts, as what may be termed -a tape reservoir. Thus, tape 10 when wound on shaft 35 far enough to bring the top slot 14 just below the lower wall 45 of the housing, in what may be designated as a primary setting, forms a reservoir or accumulated stored tape length 10', and in the same manner tape 12 on shaft 35 forms a tape reservoir or stored length 12', both on shaft 35. Also, in the same manner, tapes 11 and 13 form storage lengths 11' .and13 on shaft34.

In the gearing relation shown, which is purely illustrative, the shafts are disposed to turn oppositely, as this comports well with the conventional dimensions of the housing 17. Of course, both shafts may turn in the same direction for winding or unwinding, and the specific gearing disclosed may be simplified for similar or opposite rotation of shafts 34 and 35, and the gearing may all beat one end of the respective shafts, as by introducing a spur gear between the gear on theshaft 29 and the gears on the respective shafts '34 and 35.

With the organization thus described, with the blind proportioned to the length and width of the window with which it is to be associated, as is conventional, the storage lengths 10-13' are wound on the shafts 34 and 35 and, for convenience in manipulation, the cord 9 is pulled so as to elevate the bottom rail 16 to its highest point, and the slats 15 and upper slat 14 are bunched against the lower end 45 of the housing. For this purpose the cord 37 will have been previously unwound from the reel 29 in holding upper slat 14 adjacent to housing 17. The housing is then secured to the window frame above the window. As noted, this is a primary setting of the upper slat 14 of the plurality thereof.

In use, for normal and conventional Venetian blind functioning, the slats are bunched upon the bottom rail 16 close to the lower surface 45 of the enclosure or housing 17. The cord 9 is loosened and the lower rail 16 is lowered, passing downwardly in front of the window (inwardly thereof). As it descends under the force of gravity, the slats successively stop in their descent, spacing upper slat slightly below the surface 45 of the enclosure, and the slats 15 are spaced successively below slat 14 as the diminishing bunch of slats reposing on the bottom rail descends. Let it be assumed that the lowering continues until the bottom rail 16 is at the ultimate lowered position just below the lower edge of the window. At this maximum extension the slats are substantially evenly spaced in general respective parallelism. The entire window is now shielded by the spaced slats. If the general attitude of the respective slats was horizontal, there would be the conventional spacing between slats admitting light.

In order to tilt the slats to cause such overlapping as to preclude the passage of direct rays of light, such as sunlight, for instance, the operator simply pulls on the proper end of the tilting cord 27. This rotates pulley 26, shaft 25, and worm gear 24 in the proper direction as to cause the sector gear 23 to be moved to swing or rock the shaft 21 to tilt the bracket 20. As a rigid parallelogram exists between bracket 20, shafts 34 and 35 and bracket 33, the tilting of bracket 20 causes tilting of the entire parallelogram, lowering one shaft and raising the other shaft of the parallel shafts 34 and 35. This raises one tape of each pair, say, tapes 10 and 12, moving upwardly with shaft 35, and tapes 11 and 13 moving downwardly with shaft 34, as indicated in Fig. 4, effecting tilting of the respective slats to effect horizontal overlap of the edges of adjacent slats. Reversing the pull on cord 27 reverses this tape movement and repositions the slats. In effect, the tilting is strictly conventional, although it is noteworthy that the tilting is occasioned herein by the relative raising and lowering of the rotatable shafts 34 and 35 in the rigid assembly shown. As so far described, the blind functions just as does the conventional, in the sense that the .bottom rail can be partially lowered, all of the slats not suspended in spaced relation are bunched on the bottom rail, and tilting of the slats occurs by a tilting cord operation.

While not essential, as will be obvious, for convenience let it be assumed that the Venetian blind as described is now retracted or raised, as a preliminary to the important additional function attaching thereto. For convenience, the slats are moved into general horizontal parallelism, from their tilted extreme position, the cord 9 is pulled, elevating the bottom rail 16, in maintained parallelism with the lower end of the housing 17. As it is raised it accumulates slats 15, until at .the maximum elevation of the bottom rail 16 all of the slats 15 and, finally, 14, are bunched on the bottom rail and pulled close against the lower surface .45 of the housing. This .is for ,convenience, as the repositioning of top slat 14 may be accomplished with the blind in its extended position.

Assuming now that it is desired to have the upper slat 14 disposed at or about the middle ,of the window, in what may be designated as a secondary setting, with the space thereabove free from slats, as when desiring to clean the upper sash or to open same for free ventilation, the

cord 37 is released from its temporary lock, permitting the reel 29 to rotate, synchronously the bottom rail cord 9 is released from its lock and is payed out as the entire bunched slats and bottom rail descends under the influence of gravity. The tension of the load comes upon the tape extensions in their wound mounting on the shafts 3d and 35, which latter therefore rotate as the stored lengths 1G--13' are payed out, and the entire bunch of slats and tapes descends. As the shafts rotate, oppositely, as shown, and are geared together for the purpose, shaft 35 rotates gear 46, which is in mesh with gear 36, and the rotation of the latter rotates the reel 29, Winding up the cord 37 on the reel 29. When the upper layer of the bunch (upper slat 14) reaches any desired level on the window possible from the predetermination of the tape extension lengths, say, for the same illustrative example, the bottom of the upper sash, the shafts 34 and 35 have attained their maximum unwinding and the tapes are directly suspended from the respective tape shafts. The cord 37 has been wound and stored on the reel 29, and, if suitably stopped at this point by latching or locking the bottom rail cord 9, the entire cluster or bunch comprising the slats 14, 15, and bottom rail 16 are located adjacent the center of the window, with the entire area of window above the cluster exposed, except for the strap extension portions 10 and 11 on one pair, and 12' and 13' in another pair, and with the entire area of the window below the cluster exposed, except for the various cords depending from the cluster. in the illustrative case, these cords comprise two free ends of cord 27, two cords 9, and one cord 37. Cleaning the windows at this point is relatively simple and easy, as is the lowering of the upper sash in the space above the grouped cluster for ventilation.

Let is be assumed that the maximum lowering of the upper slat 14 has been attained, say, at the mid-point of the window, and it is desired to effect spaced coverage by slats of the lower half of the window, in visual shading thereof. The cord 9 is loosened and the bottom rail is lowered to the desired point. As the bottom rail 16 begins to descend, the slats are spaced successively from the top slat 1d and the successive slats 15 at their proper clearances, but only enough are removed from the bunch on the top rail as to cover in proper spacing the remaining (lower half) of the window. The same operation takes place wherever within the predetermined limits of the organization the top slat 14 of the bunch may be caused to stop to form the top limit of a group of spaced slats then comprising the blind.

It is a feature of the invention that the same tilting organization, i. e. the parallelogram formed of the parallel rotatable shafts 34 and 35 and tiltable mounting brackets 20 and 33, is used to elfect the proper angular setting of the respective spaced slats as is used in the uppermost or any other setting of the blind. Thus, the shaft 21 and bracket 20 are tilted, and the strap and slat organization, through the upper prolongations or extensions of the straps anchored to the shafts, move with the tilting bracket to oppositely move the straps for tilting the individual re spective slats as a group.

When it is desired to restore the conventional mounting of the blind, the then retracted cord 37, an excess of which has been wound on the reel 29, is pulled by the operator. The pull unwinds the stored excess of cord 3'7, reversing the rotation of the shafts 34 and 35 to rewind the excess tape lengths 10'-13' thereon and to pull the upper slat 14 to its starting position close to the lower surface 45 of the housing 17. Cord 37 is then locked by a lateral motion of the cord relative to its locking means 38. From here, as before, the blind functions in all visible effects as a conventional Venetian blind.

It will be seen that as shown in Fig. 8, the secondary position or setting of the bunched slats and bottom rail, with the top slat 14 spaced from the housing 17, finds fairly wide tape or ribbon lengths lt)13 in front of the Window. It will be understood, that although this tape structure is simple and ordinarily does not affect the accessibility of the upper sash for cleaning and like purposes, the visible area of such sash can be increased by reducing the width of the tape portions. Thus, it is contemplated that the upper tape extensions may be more cords or wires instead of full width tapes.

It will further be understood that it makes no real difference whether the upper slat 14 assumes its secondary position or setting with the remainder of the blind bunched or extended, nor whether the slats are in horizontal parallelism or in almost vertical tilted contact, when adjustments are made. The only limitation is practical, as to the frictional effects available from the close coupling of the tilted slats, in contrast to the slighter friction when they are separated and out of mutual contact.

As noted, for illustrative purposes the gearing is such as to require opposite rotations of the shafts 34 and 35. This is not essential, as, depending upon the space available in the housing, and with the elevating and tilting mechanism, the shafts may both turn in the same direction. Similarly, all of the gearing or other mechanical interconnections between the shafts, if desired, may be formed at one end of the organization.

Many modifications will occur to those skilled in the art, without departing from the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims, and such are to be construed as within the scope of the invention, unless specifically excluded by limitations in said claims.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. A venetian blind comprising slats and tapes, means including rotatable parallel shafts for anchoring the upper ends of the tapes, tiltable means mounting said shafts for relatively raising some straps and lowering others for tilting the slats independently of rotation of the rotatable shafts.

2. A Venetian blind comprising a support, a rockable parallelogram mounted on said support, said parallelogram comprising end brackets and parallel rotatable shafts, means for rotating said shafts independent of the rocking of said brackets, means for tilting said brackets independent of the rotation of said shafts, tapes wound on said respective shafts, slats supported by said tapes, said tapes each having a length free from slats for selective storage on or dependence from said shafts according to the sense of rotation of said shafts.

3. A Venetian blind comprising a support, a rockable supporting frame having an axis of oscillation and comprising spaced brackets and a pair of parallel rotatable shafts, a pair of tapes spaced transversely of the shafts, slats mounted on the tapes, a bottom rail below the slats, means for supporting and relatively moving the bottom rail relative to the support to control the extension and retraction of the bottom rail and thus to space or to bunch the respective slats, extensions on said tapes above the upper slat of the plurality connected to the respective shafts, means for rotating the respective shafts in synchronism independently of the rocking of said frame to wind the tape extensions upon the shafts to locate the uppermost slat close to the support in a primary positioning, or with opposite rotation in extension to locate the uppermost slat in variably spaced relation to said support in a secondary positioning, and means for rocking said frame on its axis independent of the rotation of said shafts to move the tapes oppositely for tilting said slats.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,017,541 Kuyper Oct. 15, 1935 2,283,640 Kwon May 19, 1942 2,647,572 Biscoe et a1 Aug. 4, 1953 

